Her Fitness and River City Boxing Club offer BoxFit classes in the 2025 La Fiesta schedule. Photo / Sport Whanganui
Her Fitness and River City Boxing Club offer BoxFit classes in the 2025 La Fiesta schedule. Photo / Sport Whanganui
Whanganui’s annual women’s festival La Fiesta is back for another jam-packed month of events.
It will be the 16th edition of the festival which leads up to International Women’s Day on March 8.
“We always used to put on a series of events to celebrate International Women’s Day and as we progressed there was just more and more interest of people wanting to get in behind the cause,” Women’s Network Whanganui manager and La Fiesta co-ordinator Carla Donson said.
“The festival has become big because a lot of people, through their interest and involvement, led me to realise we needed more than one day to connect the community up to amazing women, to be able to celebrate women, but also to be able to raise awareness of the importance of gender equity.”
International Women’s Day began in 1911 and is a recognised day of significance by the United Nations.
“What La Fiesta does is puts women at the forefront in our community for an entire month and gives people the opportunity to have those conversations,” she said.
Although the political side of the event is still a crucial aspect, much of the festival focuses on fun, connections, and learning, Donson said.
More than 100 events are scheduled over the month including fitness, arts, culture, and, lectures.
There are workshops and classes for generally male-dominated interests and skills including weightlifting, bike maintenance, power tools, and plumbing basics.
Many of these events were specifically requested by the public.
“It’s a way for women to feel empowered,” Donson said.
Cath Cheatley (left) and Carla Donson at 2024 La Fiesta's Frocks On Bikes event in Whanganui. Photo / Sport Whanganui
“It’s about giving women the opportunity to learn that stuff no matter how old they are.”
The festival opened over the weekend featuring a Wikipedia ‘Women in Red’ edit-a-thon.
Women in Red was started in 2015 to address the gender-bias in Wikipedia’s content.
According to the Women in Red page, there are four times as many biographies about men than women, so edit-a-thons started where women get together and write articles about significant women missing from Wikipedia.
So far through this project 203,026 women have been added to the English Wikipedia database.
La Fiesta’s edit-a-thons will focus on New Zealand, and more specifically Whanganui women.
“It’s about expanding the knowledge base and what we know about the history of New Zealand women,” Donson said.
“What more perfect thing could you have for the opening of a women’s festival?”
Despite La Fiesta being a women’s festival, anyone is welcome.
“We welcome participation from everyone in the community, that includes men- there are a lot of blokes that make assumptions about what women’s organisations do but we always encourage supportive men to get involved,” Donson said.
There are daily events until March 8, International Women’s Day.
Donson encouraged people to book their spots for events as soon as possible, as some events have already been booked out.
Festival information, event schedule, and booking information can be found at lafiesta.co.nz.
